Our new bed

Our new bed
Originally uploaded by CruisAir

It took time but we finally decided to order a new bed. Our old one was "broken" since years. But you know how it works, you always think you can deal with it one more week...
But today our new bed arrived, delivered by Ikea. We had ordered a model that compares to a Hästens model equally good but sells much cheaper at Ikea. The materials used are all natural - just like Hästens - and Ikea also gives a good warranty. Of course, the Ikea bed is not completely handmade as is the Hästens, so there are some differences.
The funny thing about this boxspring model: it's so high that when sitting on the bed's edge my feet cannot even reach the ground, awesome!

The Bucket List.

So I've been to the movies yesterday night, together with my friend Iris and my hubby Jelle. We've seen "The Bucket List" starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. A very touching, very emotional, yet at times funny movie. We all liked the movie very much and I can only strongly recommend to go see it! It's a wonderful quite, thoughtful, inspiring and memorable movie with excellent acting by the two main stars! 

I won't tell anything about the story, go to the official movie site to learn more about it or even better watch the movie in the cinema! However, I at least want to share two things of the movie with you, the song "Say" by John Mayers which I think is beautiful and has wonderful lyrics and second the movie trailer that'll give you a short impression of the movie.

The music video link

Take all of your wasted honor

Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put 'em in quotations

Say what you need to say [x8]

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you'd be better off instead,
If you could only ...

Say what you need to say [x8]

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You'd better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say [x24]

The link to the movie trailer

Mamma Mia!

Universal has released a new movie teaser trailer for the upcoming release of the Mamma Mia! Movie in the Summer! I can't wait to see my favorite actress Meryl Streep playing Donna!

"ALOHA, A Hui Hou, Until we meet again, Mahalo for flying, ALOHA AIRLINES"

Aloha 737
Originally uploaded by CruisAir

If you are interested in aviation, you undoubtedly will have noticed the "death" of several airlines in America just recently. Normally nothing worth mentioning here you would think. This time, it's a little different though. One of those airlines that shut down was Aloha Airlines, an airline that has it's homebase in the wonderful islands of Hawaii in the Pacific and used to offer inter-island flights as well as flights to the US mainland. Aloha was also the airline that became famous for its "cabrio" flight, the accident that happened above Hawaii on an inter-island where a complete section of the cabin was suddenly torn off but the pilots still managed to land the aircraft safely and of the 95 passengers and crew all but one flight crew survived the accident. The reason why I tell you all about this airline is that I read a trip report by an airline enthousiast who was on board Aloha's last commercial passenger flight. My beloved boyfriend Jelle had sent me the link to it. Believe or not, the report touched me. Aloha's shut down for an airline fan like me (who especially loves Aloha, Hawaiian and PSA - don't ask, I don't know why myself...) is comparable to a music fan who must accept the break up of his favorite group, the career stop of his favorite singer or something like this. I shed a little tear, because it simply made me sad to think about all the lovely people that had worked for this airline for sometimes many years with a lot of passion and devotion and who now lost their jobs. I highly recommend to read the article, it's a wonderful story about the kindness of this young man, his love of the airline, the wonderful spirit that brings total strangers together and unites them for a single beautiful moment.
Sure, it's only an airline. Another business down the drain. Bad management. Could all be, but still, in these stories you see the face behind such sad news, you feel the emotions, you get beyond the dry business news. That's what touched me. And it reminded me of my own personal "last flight", actually two. In 1987 the US carrier Western Airlines was taken over by Delta Air Lines. I was on the (one of the) last Western flight, from Salt Lake City to Boston. We left as Western and arrived as Delta, a very rare idea (at least if you are into aviation...). After landing in Boston it became equally emotional as in the Aloha case, I still remember that after all these years.
The second "last flight" I remember was in 2001 when I dispatched the last Eurowings BAe 146 flight, a flight from Amsterdam to Stuttgart, under the EW/KL codeshare agreement and handled by own Eurowings personnel at Amsterdam. After that, many more EW Bae's have seen Amsterdam again, but never again as a EW flight and never again handled by EW personnel, sadly. That last flight was something special, to me as well as to the crew. Back then Amsterdam was EW's biggest hub and with so many daily flights after a while you would get to know your colleagues on board as you would see them quite regularly. So after the last flight, we all knew we would not see each other again. It was strange to kind of loose your colleagues.
Having told all these personal stories it might be more understandable why the Aloha story touched me.
Finally, I am glad I took the chance in October 2007 and together with Jelle flew all three true Hawaiian carriers one more time, Hawaiian Airlines, Island Air and Aloha Airlines.

Aloha and Mahalo to the good people at AQ.

I know, this is something very special and most of you might not be interested in it - but I think this is amazing, very fascinating. It's about Royal Caribbean's latest cruise ship that at the moment is being built in Finland under the project name "Genesis". It's going to be the world's largest cruise ship and the company has now released more details about what will be featured. One stunning new innovation for cruise ships will be what Royal Caribbean calls "Central Park" - basically a little mall in the center of the ship under the open sky, with lush (real!!!) greenery, little cafés, small restaurants, boutiques and rooms that have a balcony towards this mall out in the open! For a quick glance have a look at the video below which gives a first impression. To read more about this, head to Royal Caribbean's site. Awesome, is anyone sailing with me on this ship? ;-)

I am fine. Pretty damn good, actually.

So it's been a while since my last post. Hm, why is that? Because I did not have to share anything. Well, it happens. The good news though about this is that obviously I am pretty damn good ;-) But let me tell you a few things now. 

Yesterday, my lilbro Dani returned from his New York trip and we even briefly chatted. I am thrilled he is back 'cause I missed him a lot. It's part of my day (and I don't want to call it a routine 'cause it's not) to talk to Dani so it's great he's back! Missed ya, lilbro! Don't miss to check his own blog because I'm sure he will have something to tell about his trip (which unfortunately had some hassles...).

My friend Timo has made a fantastic effort and guess what, he invited me for a short mini-cruise with DFDS from IJmuiden to Newcastle and back! Isn't that something?! I am thrilled and can't wait! We are leaving on sunday (13APR) evening and will return on tuesday morning. Yay, I am so excited and curious! We both are working, even on sunday so it'll be a bit tiring on sunday but I think it's all worth it. 

Last Friday, Jelle and I finally ordered a new bed! We are both so happy as this was something we already needed for a long time. We would have loved to buy a Hästens bed but that's unfortunately something beyond reach for our small purses. So in the end it became an Ikea bed that has been tested and compared with Hästens and guess what: it reached the same marks! It's made of all the same natural stuff that Hästens also uses, except it's not purely handmade. Well, I don't mind that at all. The big advantage is that the price comes down big time, Ikea charges only a fraction of the price of Hästens (but still enough for us...). Good news for our future guests too: we ordered a new bed for you too! So we have double bed capacity in the near future and our first guests to try them will be Dani and Sera!

Then, after I was really upset about my mother recently we spoke again... ;-) She called and it's getting better again. Though my parents still sound a bit disappointed that they don't see me that often. I do understand that. But right now I'm in the middle of a process of changing things in my life and that's important. I need to sort out these things first and then I can attend to other matters. My blind uncle is in hospital and had a surgery but it's getting better again with him, luckily! I will have to call him.

Yesterday night, our ticket counter moved to a new location and today I will be working at the new location, I am curious how it will be and how everything went... usually there's always something going wrong...

I am pretty excited about new friendships developing! Not only my friendship with Timo is great, I also met Mika on flickr and facebook and at the same time, though independently, his friend Bernie. They are both such fine people and I am thrilled to have met them and can't wait to see them personally! Mika had the great idea of setting up a private group on flickr where we are all now meeting and gathering together, I love that possibility on flickr! Also Jelle, Jörg and William are invited to join our small "bear club" ;-) I really think this is a great idea, Mika! 

I love being busy seeing and meeting friends, talking to them, travelling with them, doing things together, having them over at our place! It's simply great and I've missed that a lot! I love it! 

Ok friends, that's it for today 'cause I really need to leave and go to work. Thanks for stopping by again and talk to you all later. Bye.